There is a dangerous myth that you should do content marketing instead of advertising, or with content marketing you don’t need to pay for traffic.
It’s true that there are a lot of success stories based around the idea that you don’t necessarily need to pay. You can for sure make that choice and be happy with slower growth and a delay profitability.
Ignoring paid options does however limit your momentum, and allows competitors an advantage.
Where businesses go wrong with advertising
I believe the problem companies have with advertising is how they use it.
Advertising is an accelerant.
Pour kerosene on a bonfire and you get a big flash of flame. What happens afterwards?
If you built the bonfire correctly then you get a nice source of light and warmth.
Most people who pour kerosene on their bonfires probably did it because they did not build their bonfire correctly. At best, they pour out the liquid and the fire goes out, and there is a good chance they lose their eyebrows.
The danger of cherry-picking tactics
It comes back to your strategy. Pouring advertising kerosene on a broken plan is just accelerating your demise.
So often people mistake fitting a bunch of tactics together with having a winning strategy.
Looking at someone else’s approach and parroting their tactics without knowing how the pieces fit together is like copying pick-up artists lines and wondering why you get slapped in the face while they get telephone numbers.
What should you do?
Before you pay for visibility you need to have already determined …
- Who is most likely to respond to your message and how best to identify them.
- The ideal outcome-based promise for that audience.
- What will answer their objections and get them to take a first action.
- How best to keep them coming back, returning with enthusiasm.
- Where you are leading them.
Get this wrong, or skip steps, and all you get is a wasted budget and inflated vanity metrics.
But get it right and you compound your results and grow your lifetime value.